You're about to clock ten years bro, I just realised I did the other day, diabolical to think about really. I thought I'd be rich by now.

It musta been 2001 that I was put onto Sage by a mate, I was way into Anticon, Atmosphere, and a bunch of the indepenent stuff that was floating around the internet at the time. The first Sage song I heard was maybe Inherited Scars from the Giga Single or whatever it was called. I also heard a bunch of his mixtape stuff shortly after. I was curious at the low fi sound and mix of seemingly freestyle and extremely intricate writing styles. I also liked that he seemed to have a bit more balls than the other dudes in his collective (no offence).

Then Personal Journals dropped and I was floored. I thought Hope was a masterpeice and as well as AHD. Nowadays AHD stands as my fave Sage album and the one I still listen to regularly. I re-purchased PJ recently and whilst I don't think some of the songs have stood the test of time as well as others and particularly AHD everytime I listen to it the lyrics get stuck in my head for days and days afterwards which is a testiment to the catchiness of his wordplay.

I joined this forum yup pretty much exactly ten years ago just before Sage was about to tour downunder coz I was excited about it.

Wed Aug 08, 2012 8:33 pm

NeuroA champion of Kurtis SP

Joined: 19 Jul 2002
Posts: 7852

im in the 2002 club too

i wanna write something about the forum but havent figured out what i wanna say yet

i will say i revisited Human The Death Dance the other night after a long break from it and wow that album is very very good

Wed Aug 08, 2012 9:31 pm

phataccino

Joined: 10 Jan 2004
Posts: 4778

Back in early 2002 I had a two-hour show on my college's radio station. I didn't have the Internet at the time, and had never even heard of Sage (or any of the other artists that have come to be associated with the indy hip-hop scene). At the time I was listening to--and playing on my show-- mainly Golden Era stuff with some newer stuff interspersed. One day, one of my roommates brought a friend to the studio and he was looking through my CDs. He said something like "if you like all this stuff, you'd really like Sage Francis." He didn't have any CDs with him at the time, but that night we stayed up until like 5:00 a.m. as I flipped through his CD book and just picked stuff out at random and had him play me his favorite song from that particular CD. That night I got my first taste of of Strange Famous, Rhyme Sayers, Def Jux, Anticon and just about everyone that has come to be associated with the genre. Suffice it to say, my mind was blown. I started digging into it as much as I could, but without the Internet at home, I was severely limited. That friend of a friend, who later became a very close friend of mine, would bring his CDs whenever he came over and we spent hours and hours going through them. He still knows more about indy hop-hop than anyone I've ever met, and he filled in all the background and explained the different artists and groups to me. He'd burn CDs for me and bring them over. Shit was amazing. I think the only musical "first" that can compare to the first time I heard Sage was the first time I heard Outkast.

Anyway, I'd read all kinds of interviews, reviews and articles between classes in the computer labs at school and jump on friends' computers to try to track down new music, then I happened across this forum, which at the time was still the Non-Prophets Forum. I spent about a year lurking, then finally decided to take the dive and join up. At that time you had to email Sage with a username and request to be added (or something along those lines), then he'd email you back when you were active. I emailed him, then waited and waited and didn't hear back for weeks. I finally emailed him again and he was like "I activated that a while ago." So I logged on for the first time. For a while I was a little intimidated to get involved in many conversations because everyone seemed much smarter and more knowledgeable than me. I stuck to posting about music and sports and other BS for a while, then delved into some of the serious political/social threads. There used to be some doozies. (The recent shooting in Milwaukee would have been a 50 page thread by now with nuanced and informed opinions on gun control, the 2nd Amendment, racism, xenophobia, etc.) I've interacted with a few people from this forum other ways via the Internet and met a handful in person, mostly at shows or Knowmore events, but there are a lot more I'd like to meet one day. Though, like me, most of them don't post much anymore.

Hard to believe it's been over ten years since I was introduced to Sage's music, almost nine years since I found this forum, and more than eight years since I started posting here. At that time I was a single college student working at a hot dog joint. Now I'm married with two kids and am director of communications and marketing for a college. It's been a hell of an eight years.

Some bots might sign up but just release Mark Intel Minnesota on their codes.

Dude is a Homeland Security 5 Star Roomba Vac Bot-Shark. That makes cappuccino's at the touch of a button.

His latest update came with a Lady Gaga laser show plug in.

Thu Aug 09, 2012 10:54 pm

mzehe916

Joined: 04 Aug 2006
Posts: 4544
Location: Switzerland

^^^^This. We all hate trolls, but they do offer a bit of amusement. And Trav, that guy was as amusing as one could be. Also, dude in AZ was also funny. He wasn't a troll at all, but amusing. I forget his user name now but I know he was still active on the forum fantasy football team. Speaking of which, is the forum doing fantasy football this year?

I don't remember how I came across the forum, but I'm glad I did. This is one of three forums I am active in. And by active I mean registered with. This one by far has been the most diverse. To the point where I feel like I know all of these strangers very well.

Fri Aug 10, 2012 7:33 am

xGasPricesx

Joined: 23 May 2008
Posts: 1593

mzehe916 wrote: ^^^^This. We all hate trolls, but they do offer a bit of amusement. And Trav, that guy was as amusing as one could be. Also, dude in AZ was also funny. He wasn't a troll at all, but amusing. I forget his user name now but I know he was still active on the forum fantasy football team.

Phil Lacacio! AKA P DAWG! I miss that guy, he said some stupid and slightly offensive things every now and again, but he definitely kept things interesting. It's a shame he stopped posting around here. Also, yeah, Trav was the Joker to this forums Batman, we needed him.

On another note, as far as what else this forum has taught me, and Strange Famous Records in general, is a stronger work ethic. There are a lot of people on here who have inspired me to bust my ass for what I want to do in my life and have often found the kick in the pants I needed on this forum. Also, just this label in general is quite a good inspiration for that as well. A hell of a lot of hard work, and a massive amount of talent, and you can build something pretty incredible.

Fri Aug 10, 2012 2:26 pm

poisonfree

Joined: 23 Aug 2002
Posts: 1525
Location: Macramento

Ha he is on my Xbox frenx list. every now and then I harass him.

last time I said "We Miss you!" and he replied"LOL yeah, Fuckin doubt it!"

xGasPricesx wrote:

mzehe916 wrote: ^^^^This. We all hate trolls, but they do offer a bit of amusement. And Trav, that guy was as amusing as one could be. Also, dude in AZ was also funny. He wasn't a troll at all, but amusing. I forget his user name now but I know he was still active on the forum fantasy football team.

Phil Lacacio! AKA P DAWG! I miss that guy, he said some stupid and slightly offensive things every now and again, but he definitely kept things interesting. It's a shame he stopped posting around here. Also, yeah, Trav was the Joker to this forums Batman, we needed him.

On another note, as far as what else this forum has taught me, and Strange Famous Records in general, is a stronger work ethic. There are a lot of people on here who have inspired me to bust my ass for what I want to do in my life and have often found the kick in the pants I needed on this forum. Also, just this label in general is quite a good inspiration for that as well. A hell of a lot of hard work, and a massive amount of talent, and you can build something pretty incredible.

Fri Aug 10, 2012 6:00 pm

Reggie

Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Posts: 5766
Location: Queens, NYC

Phil Lacio was banned? He was the guy from whom I got Dana Dane With Fame.

I actually forgot this was the Non-Prophets board at first. Ha. The forum has been doubleplus better since

Thu Aug 16, 2012 10:39 am

xGasPricesx

Joined: 23 May 2008
Posts: 1593

Reggie wrote: Phil Lacio was banned? He was the guy from whom I got Dana Dane With Fame.

I actually forgot this was the Non-Prophets board at first. Ha. The forum has been doubleplus better since

I don't think he was banned, I think he just said something that he caught some shit for and decided to take his ball and go home. I can't remember the exact situation, and I think it might have been a "straw that broke the camels back" type situation. Either way, I haven't seen him post here in quite some time.

Thu Aug 16, 2012 12:15 pm

iammessage

Joined: 10 Aug 2009
Posts: 655
Location: ZOO DIRT, OH

I first heard Majority Rule my senior year in high school (2000) when i downloaded it for reasons unknown on Napster at my moms house. I couldnt afford the internet for years, but every chance I had i would search the name Sage Francis after hearing that song. I was at a party about a year later and some kid randomly had a few more songs on a cd, so i stole it from him. (sorry kid, that stuff was life changing for me) I later learned ( i think) what i stole was a bootleg All Word No Play.

I ordered Personal Journals from a Barnes and Noble in Columbus Ohio not long after that. To this day i have not played any album more than this album. I'd never heard anything that interested me like this. I had to be apart of it. It became my mission in life to somehow be apart of this. Haha.

In January 2003 i finally got to see the Sage show with Gruvis Malt at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor Michigan. It was as close to a religious experience as i had felt at that age. I was shell shocked to the point my anxieties prohibited me from saying a word to him. I even waited to by my merch from someone else.

The very next night he was in Columbus at Little Brothers and i went again. I had a cd with 1 song i made at a friends house on it i was determined to give Sage. After introducing myself, giving Sage a cigarette haha, and being introduced to Mr. Dibbs i decided i was going to do it, but didnt. I gave him my friends album instead and told him it would mean a lot if he listened to it. Sage said they listen to demo's and laugh at them on the road all the time so i was instantly relieved i didnt give him mine. I bought a sweatshirt, asked Sage to sign it and hold it for me because i didnt want to wear it and i didnt want the only XXL left to get sold. Sage told me he liked my homemade sweatshirt i had on. The front said "Anti Socialite" and the back said "Anti Imperialist" with a couple terrible illustrations, but Sage liked it and i felt awesome. I came back to get the shirt i bought after the show and with my new confidence asked if i could send him some music once i was proud enough to send it. That is when he gave me the email and AIM SageKillz.

I still didnt have internet but i would go to a coffee shop next to the dry cleaner i worked at and read the forums daily. I wrote an email with the lyrics to a song i wrote and thanked Sage for the awesome time and interacting with me so much. He said he liked the bars and to keep writing and that he had just been talking to his roommate about the sweatshirt i made. I soon after found the forums and mainly just read them, i joined briefly and challengedMichael Motorcycle to a text battle that im pretty sure is archived and hilarious, little did i know nobody wanted that on the forums and i was banned haha.

I pretty much did all i could for the next 5 or 6 years to see Sage whenever i could. At scribble jam i walked up to the merch table and he said my name as i approached i was shocked he remembered me and he never shoo'd me away while i semi-stalked him around the venue all weekend. Traveled to Chicago a couple times and always felt like i got a little special treatment.

At 30 years old, i really wish i cared about anything as much as i did in those days. That was a period in my life something as simple as music totally controlled my thoughts, desires, goals...everything.

It was a lot of fun. Glad i did it.

Thu Aug 16, 2012 4:16 pm

Bob_ptmfus

Joined: 11 Jan 2007
Posts: 743

Didn't MichaelMotorcycle turn out to be Sage?

Thu Aug 16, 2012 5:36 pm

Mark in Minnesota

Joined: 02 Jan 2004
Posts: 2053
Location: Saint Louis Park, MN

I've already told the story about how I got into this kind of music elsewhere on the forum.

I signed up here because there were rappers I liked posting on the forum at the time. I didn't post often until over a year after my account was first approved because I realized I wasn't really all that comfortable with the way those rappers being themselves on the forum was demystifying their art for me.

I'm 34 now. I was 25 when I made my first post here, but I've been an active participant in various online communities for a lot longer. Citadel-86 BBSes in the Twin Cities from just before age 13. LP-MUDs from about age 15. USENET off-and-on from age 17, LiveJournal and Everything2 from age 22.

From age 12 to age 25, I consistently used screen names (or "handle" as we used to call them) from fantasy fiction or similar. This was the first place I used my real name in association with public posts for any length of time -- even just my first name.

It changed the way I felt about my posts here a little bit, as did the fact that there were posts here by people who I thought of as being "famous." Not that I specifically cared about what those people thought of me, but that those people were obviously thinking about the consequences that a given post could have for them outside the forum. It got me in the habit of thinking the same way, at least a little bit.

I think I'm a more decent person online because of that, not just in this forum but elsewhere as well. I'm still arrogant and combative sometimes, but I try harder to present myself in a way that I can be proud of in my activity here than I ever did when I was hiding behind a more anonymous username.

It's also what I still like about this forum, to this day: the fact that even though many of us write under aliases and pseudonyms, and even though we tolerate trolling to a certain extent, this place is frequented by people who have reason to care about how their presence here reflects on their public reputation. I like the tone that sets, and I haven't found that same balance in many other communities on the Internet.

Thu Aug 16, 2012 5:54 pm

SFR announcement

Joined: 26 Jul 2004
Posts: 951

Mark in Minnesota wrote: the fact that even though many of us write under aliases and pseudonyms, and even though we tolerate trolling to a certain extent, this place is frequented by people who have reason to care about how their presence here reflects on their public reputation.

This is precisely why I'm such a stickler about not allowing people on this forum unless they can verify that they exist elsewhere online (typically on a social network.) I like to know that they can be held accountable in one way or another. If a person is not active on ANY social network but they're trying to sign up for this forum, that usually means they're a troll of some sort.

Also, "trolling" is not the main reason we refuse to open the gates. Most people who want to join this forum are rappers who mainly want to post about their music. And really...fuck all of that. It's not worth the extra time for forum maintenance when MC Check-Out-My-Free-Mixtape decides that this is his spamground.

Thu Aug 16, 2012 8:32 pm

futuristxen

Joined: 01 Jul 2002
Posts: 19377
Location: Tighten Your Bible Belt

I don't really understand anymore what this board is supposed to be, and get confused about how to try and use it. There's like 20 active people here, and they may or may not want to talk about what I want to talk about(most likely not). There's like 1000+ people in my twitter/tumblr/facebook netweork who are jacked into exactly the same shit I am--so it's weird. But still I come. I guess on the off chance that a familiar face might pop in and say something.

When I first started posting here it was all people who were sort of going in the same direction I was. And now all those people are gone from here. I still am in contact with them, and see them from time to time--but it's flipped from that, to a lot of people I feel very disassociated from.

I think too tumblr/twitter/facebook are such satisfying ways of sharing/talking about your interests-that it's hard for a message board to keep up with that. It's much slower--and it's not sort of built around your ego. Which can be strengths for it--but I think for a lot of people now, the main difference between it, and say their twitter is that on a message board you can sort of pick fights with strangers--and just sort of spew a particular kind of bile that you can't really do in the other medias as well. Which I mean...isn't really healthy. But a lot of the message boards I see still sort of thriving--it is basically trolls servicing the need of the many to have a release for their anger and frustrations.

Thu Aug 16, 2012 9:51 pm

SFR announcement

Joined: 26 Jul 2004
Posts: 951

Our goal isn't to wave the flag of messageboards and pretend that they should take priority over all other social sites. Times have changed and I accept that. People have gone on to cater to their own personal pages. I understand that and I do the same. Back in the day, people would post fleeting grievances/interests/thoughts on this site and now they do that on their own page. Good.

However, to this forum's credit, this *is* a place where people can hash out their thoughts (or maybe participate in arguments) in a way that is out of the eyes/pokes/disdain/annoyance of their own personal "fanbase"/social circle. This is a select group of people from all walks of life who we've come to know and understand outside of whatever memes and shares happen within our own internet clique. Not only that, but there's an archival thing going on here, which is something I don't get the sense of from sites like Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Take yourself for instance. There are many things I've seen you post on twitter and tumblr, but nothing that has given me greater insight into who you are than what I've been able to ascertain from your posts on this forum. In a weird way...this archaic internet platform is more intimate. Or, hey, maybe I'm wrong. But one thing's for sure. This messageboard, in all its puny-ness, has outlasted LiveJournal, Friendster & Myspace. Although it gets a fraction of the activity I currently receive on Facebook and Twitter, it's still more active than my GooglePlus page. People come back to this forum after they abandon the other shit because we're a constant in a virtual world of unreliable sheeeeyot. Lastly, if everything goes as planned, each and every single one of you motherfuckers will be banned from it before I die.